


Contractual Obligations

by kethni



Category: Veep (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Sequel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-31
Updated: 2020-05-31
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:00:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,943
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24473164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kethni/pseuds/kethni
Summary: ‘Irrespective of the finer points of law, parenthood is to some degree an emotional and intellectual contract,’ Kent said. ‘I don’t think it’s unreasonable to suggest that perhaps I have fulfilled the contractual obligations at least to the same degree as Andrew.’
Relationships: Kent Davison/Selina Meyer
Comments: 2
Kudos: 11





	Contractual Obligations

**Author's Note:**

> For Anonymous

Kent had been seeing Selina for three months when she broke up with him. It was neither his longest nor his shortest relationship. It was the relationship that took him the longest to get over.

Selina was in the middle of finalising her divorce when she “reconnected” with Kent. He certainly wasn’t the first man that she slept with a man she had broken up with. He was however the last.

Kent had dated a parent previously.

Selina had never dated a parent.

Kent was not a spiritual man.

Selina was not a spiritual woman.

Holding Kian when he was born felt like Kent was seeing all of creation.

Holding Catherine when she was born felt like Selina wanted some damn sleep.

***

‘Do you think Catherine needs to go on the pill?’ Selina asked.

They were sat in bed luxuriating in a whole ten minutes of watching television before Selina had to get up.

‘What?’ Kent asked.

‘I really don’t need her getting pregnant.’

Kent gave her a sideways look. ‘Isn’t she a little young for that?’

‘Fourteen? No. Believe me. Kids that age are at it like rabbits.’

Kent gave this some thought. ‘It’s quite difficult to imagine that applying to Catherine.’

‘That’s because you’re her dad,’ Selina said. ‘Uh… Uh I mean… I mean stepdad… Obviously…’

‘That’s okay,’ he said slowly.

Selina licked her lips. ‘It’s okay because it was a dumb slip of the tongue or it’s okay because…’

‘Irrespective of the finer points of law, parenthood is to some degree an emotional and intellectual contract,’ Kent said. ‘I don’t think it’s unreasonable to suggest that perhaps I have fulfilled the contractual obligations at least to the same degree as Andrew.’

‘Oh God,’ Selina said. ‘You’re a thousand times the father to Catherine that Andrew is.’

Kent smiled. ‘Thank you. I think.’

‘I mean it’s Andrew so…’

‘You can stop now.’

‘I can’t believe I wasted my five minutes of relaxation today on Catherine’s teenage hormones,’ she said getting up.

‘She hasn’t mentioned a boyfriend,’ Kent said mildly.

‘Yeah, that’s how we know she’s got one. If she was babbling away about some boy then we’d know she didn’t,’ Selina said.

Kent blinked. ‘The logic there escapes me.’

‘Teenage girl logic. You weren’t one so you’ll never get it.’

‘I’m suddenly quite relieved not to have been.’

Selina cocked her head. ‘You weren’t already relieved not to have been? You’re a tall, white man. You won the genetic lottery.’

‘The bigoted lottery perhaps,’ he said. ‘Women have a number of advantages over men, biological as well as cultural.’

‘The only people who say that are deluded feminists and the men trying to bang them,’ she retorted.

‘You’re not a deluded feminist so your argument makes no sense.’

She grinned as she kissed him. ‘No, you are.’

***

Kent was the one who dealt with bumps, bruises, and tears generally.

Selina was the one who dealt with yelling at other parents, and teachers.

They both went to the school when Kian got into a fight with three other boys. Catherine was stood in the corner of the principal’s office with her arms tightly crossed while Kian was perched on the edge a chair, swinging his legs.

‘What the hell is going on?’ Selina demanded. ‘Catherine, why the hell did you let this happen?’

‘What? Mom, this isn’t my fault!’ she wailed.

‘What happened?’ Kent asked the principal.

She waved her hands. ‘The boys won’t tell us what the trigger point was. There was a fight between Kian and three other boys. Catherine intervened shortly before it was broken it up.’

‘Who threw the first punch?’ Kent asked.

‘What did they do?’ Selina asked.

Kian shrugged. ‘Me but it’s okay. We all shook hands afterwards.’

‘Oh,’ Selina said. ‘Well…’ She trailed off at Kent’s expression. ‘That’s not okay?’

‘Throwing punches is _not_ an acceptable way to settle interpersonal problems,’ Kent said severely. ‘We’ll discuss this more at home along with your punishment.’

Kian’s small features approximated a look of disbelief that Selina had seen in the mirror too many times. ‘I got hit a whole bunch.’

‘Doubtless they will be punished for that,’ Kent said. ‘There are consequences for your actions beyond the immediate and obvious.’

‘Being punished twice doesn’t seem fair,’ Catherine protested.

‘If a grownup gets into a fight the police don’t say “hey, no jail for you because you got punched,” that’s not how it works,’ Selina said.

‘You could make it work like that,’ Catherine grumbled.

‘Oh yeah, I can just see that bill getting through the House,’ Selina muttered. ‘We’ll ban monsters under the bed while we’re at it.’

***

Selina was in a meeting when Kian came off his motorbike. She hated that damn thing. Sure, it was hot when Kent rode around on his. But he was an adult. He knew what he was doing. She could fool herself that there was no chance of him ending up smeared on the street.

It was all too easy to imagine that with Kian. To visualise some tap from a passing car sending him spinning off into traffic.

She saw Gary turn grey as he got the message. He didn’t much like Catherine or Kian, and they didn’t like him. But he knew damn well how badly she would take it when he told her.

So, he didn’t. He turned grey and he ran away to find someone else to deliver the bad news.

She knew it was bad when she saw Gary’s face, sure, but he was such a damn drama queen it was impossible to know if his reaction was anything to do with reality. Ben Cafferty was much more reliable. When he plodded into the room looking grave her heart sank.

‘Ma’am, there’s no need to panic but –’

Bile immediately washed up her throat and into her mouth. ‘Who is it? How bad is it?’

Ben held up his hands. ‘Cuts and bruises mostly.’

‘ _Mostly_? What does mostly mean? And who is it?’

‘Broken leg,’ Ben said. ‘It’s Kian.’

***

Kent was marking papers when Catherine’s appendix burst. Selina was in Airforce One on her way to Europe. Andrew was… who knew where. Kent was needed to stand in loco-parentis for a fifteen-year-old whom had only ever addressed him as “Kent,” and had recently asked Andrew if she could live with him instead.

It was not a task that filled him with joy. Nonetheless, he immediately put aside his work and followed the Secret Service agent outside. It was a short drive to the hospital.

‘It really hurts,’ Catherine whispered.

‘I know.’ Kent squeezed her hands.

He had been prepared for lavish tears and hysterical sobbing. He knew Catherine’s crying jags of old. He hadn’t been prepared for a kind of defeated misery. As if this was only a stop along a long road of pain.

‘They’re about to take you into surgery,’ he said.

She nodded. ‘Thanks.’

‘It’s okay.’

They began to move her gurney.

‘You didn’t have to come.’

‘Sure I did.’

She shook her head as they took her through the doors. ‘Nobody else did.’

Kent rubbed his forehead. It wasn’t fair. But Catherine knew better than most that life wasn’t fair. Selina had chosen this life. He had accepted this life when he married her. Catherine and Kian hadn’t been given the choice.

He watched her wheeled away and found his seat in the waiting area, resolved to be there as long as necessary.

‘You look like I feel.’

He knew that it wasn’t Selina of course, the two women sounded nothing alike, Nonetheless, he was disappointed when he turned and saw Amy. She was on her cell, naturally. There had been times when he had wondered if it was surgically grafted to her hand.

‘Are you here instead of Selina?’ He didn’t mean to snap. It wasn’t her fault that she was there. It almost certainly wasn’t even her choice.

She glanced up at him. ‘Just the advance guard.’

‘I apologise, that was rude.’

‘What was?’ she asked. As far as he could tell she genuinely had no idea what he was talking about.

‘I was a little sharp,’ he admitted. ‘I’m somewhat stressed but that’s no excuse.’

She looked at him as if he had grown three heads. ‘When Selina found out about Catherine’s appendix, she threw a saucer at the wall of the airplane. One half of the saucer hit Gary on the head.’

‘Dear Lord!’

‘It wasn’t the broken side,’ Amy added. ‘He wasn’t cut.’

Kent shook her head. ‘That’s appalling. You put up with that?’

‘You don’t?’

‘ _No_!’

She flipped back her hair. ‘I guess it’s different when you work for someone.’

Kent shook his head. ‘I’ve never had an employer hurl crockery in my vicinity.’

‘Huh,’ Amy said. ‘It’s pretty common in politics.’

‘I am more grateful not to work in politics more that I was.’

***

Selina almost ran into Catherine’s room. Her heels shrieked as they slid against the hospital floor. She yanked off her coat and threw it at Gary as she burst through the door.

Kent and Kian were at Catherine’s bedside. Kian was showing Catherine something in a book, leaning over her.

‘Jesus, sit down!’ Selina barked. ‘Do you wanna fall on your damn sister? Don’t you know that she’s just had surgery?’

Kian’s expression turned to shock, and his lower lip began to quiver.

‘Mom!’ Catherine wailed.

Kent was on his feet. He grabbed Selina by the arm and pulled her back out into the corridor.

‘What the hell?’ Selina demanded, glancing at the uncertain Secret Service agents.

‘My question entirely,’ Kent snapped. ‘Don’t take your guilt out on Kian. I will not have it.’

She narrowed her eyes. ‘Don’t grab me unless you’re gonna fuck me.’

He held up his hands. ‘Catherine is already feeling extremely fragile. She needs the soothing of a loving mother not a screaming banshee descending upon her.’

Selina reddened as she smoothed her dress. ‘We’ll talk about this later.’

‘Oh, we will.’

***

Selina didn’t _like_ arguing but she wasn’t afraid of it and she didn’t get any kind of unease about it.

Kent hated conflict. Arguments of sufficient intensity could actually make him throw up. He had never told Selina this. He loved her. But he didn’t trust her not to take advantage of it.

‘You need to show me respect in front of the kids,’ Selina growled.

‘It’s very difficult to respect you when you have completely lost all self-control to the point that you are screaming at Kian.’

Selina crossed her arms. ‘Losing my temper isn’t the same as losing self-control.’

Kent tilted his head. ‘You say that as if the difference in this context is important.’

‘What about you grabbing me and dragging me around like a ragdoll, huh? How is that not losing your temper and self-control?’

He took a deep breath and released it slowly. ‘You’re right. That was inexcusable.’

‘Okay then,’ she said.

He raised his eyebrows. ‘You need to apologise to both of them.’

‘I didn’t yell at her,’ she protested.

He rubbed his forehead. ‘She was there. She heard you. If you think that didn’t affect her then you are sorely mistaken.’

Selina blew out her cheeks. ‘I’ve never seen you this mad before.’

‘You’re right,’ he said. ‘You haven’t.’

She took a long breath and let it out slowly. Then she forced to say _those words._ ‘I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have lost it like that. It won’t happen again.’

‘Okay,’ he said, and kissed her softly.

‘That’s it?’

‘We’re your family,’ he said. ‘Sometimes we need to forgive you. Sometimes you need to forgive us.’

The End


End file.
